Presentation on Aligning and Communicationg the Product Vision using Role Playing and Storyboards from Agile Roots Conference in Salt Lake City Utah June 2010
Hello world – 10:30 – 10:32Introductions:Amy – trusted ally, entrepreneur, social media maven – let her talkElizabeth – talented artist, teacher, insightful – let her talkMyself – background in Software Quality Engineering/Apple/Adobe/Startups, video-journalism,LifeSpring, Aikido, improvisational arts like Contact Improvisation, Physical TheaterInfluences: Jeff Patton- with “Make it a Blockbuster Article”; Story MappingDavid Hussman– Leading with Persona discovery and keeping it real and personal approachJean Tabaka– Collaboration is where it’s at. What could be more collaborative than improvisational role playing?Kevin Cheng for Storyboards, Comics, Kevin Cheng who is product manager for Twitter and pioneered the use of comics and storyboards at Yahoo for user experience. He has a book coming out called “See what I mean” that explores this application furtherLee Devin and Stacia Broderick whose Book “the art of innovation?” and session? at agile 2008 inspired me to pursue role playing for product visioningLuke Hohmannof Innovation Games who is the pioneer of product visioning and group sourcing innovation and design
Introduction: 10:32 – 10:40This is your perspective, point of view – makes the point that everyone has one and we need to know what that is.Story: Gabe, Sound engineers need to their hearing checked, we need to ask questions about ourselves.Who are we?For the purpose of this exercise we will be assuming we are a company interested in delivering a product or service to improve the communications epxerience amongst conference goersTuning Your VisionWhat do we care about?What can we do?What do we know?
Presenting Symptoms - – 10:40 – 10:50(looking outwards) Where’s the pain in the world you are serving?What’s the pain in conference communications? (solicit answers from the audience)[Amy writes down pain points]Why do anything different? What's the issue?no traction with customers or marketcomplaintsfriction, wobble, misalignmentarrested development
10:50 – 10:55Dennis tells a story of how a product vision came to be and why it doesn’t work. What to do about it:Broaden your perspectiveWhy not just focus on the product universe?Your product could be a faltering answer to an aging and possibly misunderstood needget the right people in the roompunditsusersresearchcompetitionindustry orgsMap the CollectiveMindmapsGet out thereurban anthropology/ethnographyinterviewObservePhotographer hiked the Abineau - Bear Jaw Loop on the north side of the San Francisco Peaks in the Kachina Wilderness north of Flagstaff Arizona. You can read his triplog at HikeArizona.com
10:55 – 11:00Collect the Outliers (MalcomGladwell), In Search of EleganceOnly look at ConflictTriumphFailuredissatisfactiondisappointmentfrustrationvaluable lessons are okstupid repetitive losses are not.
11:00 – 11:05How do you do that? Let’s say we’ve done some reasearch and talked to people. Now we look for patterns. Explore the OutlandLook for patterns [bring out the mind map]look for fit with who we are – do we have what it takes to solve this problem? What are the root causes of these problems?For example people want to attend two sessions at the same time How can we either avoid these situations, reprogram the solution, etc.reenact in a groupask the 5 why's
Roleplaying11:05 – 11:35Now we understand the domain and have some solutions. Now let’s look forward:What if? remember the futureexplore possible solutions as you retell and relive the storiesrole play life with these solutions using same personae as with the conflicts[stop and do a skit?]pick a topic from user feedback in slide 3Volunteers role play the issue and discover more problemsTimeboxed [10 minutes ]Do the five whysWhy did that happenThink of a new solutionRole play a new solution This exercise should begin 30 minutes into the presentation and end 30 minutes before the scheduled finish time
Test reality of the options 11:35-11:40return to your people with a "what if you had? " questionask which would you prefer? (Innovation Game)Reject the ones that don’t resonate. Build the ones that do.[just dennis talking and explaining theory]
Storyboarding11:40 - 11:50Hey, we need a way to record this for other people in our organization! I’ve found what really helps is storyboarding.[pull out the storyboards][Explain and demonstrate what storyboards are][ta-da! Introducing Elizabeth][storyboarding exercise]Storyboard thisThe Dilemmathe InsightThe SolutionThe Triumph
Sharing Storyboards 11:50 – 11:52You really need to communicate this to everyone!Access and Integrate The VisionBig Visible HDTV in the team roomPosters and PersonaeUTube/Flash/ VideoInteractive Image Map on wiki/Sharepoint
Thank you – 11:55I have five half hour consultations to give away – please see Amy here if you are interested.
Example of an unfinished Illustrated Persona by Elizabeth and Myself. We will be adding to it during the breaks as we interview attendees.Application used for Layout is shareware Scribushttp://www.scribus.netDrawings done with Autodesk Sketchpad Pro on aniPad.